Canine Conjurer

Cornelius, Golden Retriever Wizard
28mm scale

Misty morning, clouds in the sky
Without warning, the wizard walks by
Casting his shadow, weaving his spell
Funny clothes, tinkling bell

A coworker recently showed me something pretty cool: she had backed the "Animal Adventures: Tales of Dungeons and Doggies" Kickstarter!  She recently received 13 lovely fantasy adventurer dog figures in the classic character classes: wizard, monk, fighter, bard, paladin, druid and so on.  Naturally, I offered to paint one for her: this classic magic user complete with battered Gandalf-style hat and spell books.  It's a really lovely set, especially considering they're plastic figures.

"All right, calm down there Shardik.  How about a nice Cure Light Wounds spell?"

Ursus arctos horribilis

Grizzly Bear
28mm scale

The bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life

Philip Hynes' animal sculpts are really incredible; more wildlife art than gaming figures, really.  I got this lovely figure as a miscast in my Bears' Head Miniatures order.  I just had to fill some large bubbles on its stomach and do some dental work.  North American brown bears come in a variety of coat colours, so I had a fair bit of leeway in that regard; this reddish hue was a purely esthetic choice.

The base is an ambitious improvement on my old "Italian seasoning forest base" method... I added some fallen North American tree species and woodland flowers to liven it up a bit.  This was a really enjoyable project; expressive, beautiful, and quite a change from my usual subject matter.

Living her be(a)st life...

Galaxy Guardian

Baby Groot
180mm

"Groot, you can't.  You'll die!  Why?  Why are you doing this?
"WE are Groot."

This one's a slightly different project from my usual.  My 5yo son is a big Guardians of the Galaxy fan and I made this to decorate his room.  Groot is made from Fimo, sculpted over a wire and tinfoil armature.  I filled the pot with plaster with a bit of pea gravel to give it some heft.  I've never worked substantially with Fimo before, it was surprisingly easy and forgiving to use.  I had to make this in stages so it was baked probably 4-5 times and the first part I did (the head) shows no discoloration, cracking etc.  I added a bit of dark washing to enhance his wood grain, and a few painted details which I think make him look very similar to the recently-sprouted Baby Groot as he appears at the end of the first GotG movie.  He's about 18 cm tall and another 10 cm for the pot, so this is definitely not a small item, by my standards anyway.  Lots of fun, and hopefully my son will like having this cute guy hanging out on his dresser!

Bear Market

It's always exciting when some good mail arrives.  Of course, as an adult your only mail generally is bills, and things you ordered yourself... But an order from Philip Hynes' Bear's Head miniatures is exceptional!  This is the output of a couple of unique Kickstarters plus his regular, fantastic catalogue.

Received: 28mm "Mother of Spiders", Nancy the Gnome Barmaid, an orangutan, a fox... and Narthoks the sci-fi Beholder!

Bonus: resin miscasts which Philip sent me for free: a zombie rhino, bigfoot, bear, and bartender Narthoks!  A bit of TLC and putty should be enough to make these guys look great too!

 I'm currently finishing up an unrelated craft project, which I'll share soon, but I can't wait to get painting these. 

An offer you can't refuse

Dirty Thirties Gangsters
15mm

I painted this buncha wise guys for the same person who sent me some 10mm fantasy characters a while back.  They're Khurasan's "LC-103, Sheparton's gangster henchmen" from his eldritch horror range.  These may have spurred some light research into men's fashion, prompted by such questions as "did hats match suits?" and "who wore spats?" (in this case the two dapper goons on the right).

You came to the wrong neighborhood

Alien thugs
15mm

The streets of Dropfall are home to a wide array of unsavory and dangerous characters... these two nonhumans make a career out of violence and petty theft.

Figures are from Alternative Armies: Kardul and Oni.

"Look at humans!  Fancy pair is them... Think they took wrong turn, yes?"

"You again!"

Children of the 80's

As a kid in the 80s, I played with the classic 80's toys - especially GI Joe and Transformers - almost every day.  In the last while I've run into the blogs of a few hobbyists who are tabletop-gaming 28mm GI Joe...  It's a pretty cool idea, and presents the chance for lots of fun hobby projects.  From Katsuhiko Jinnai's "The Realm of Jinnai":

Wow... stunning work, and nostalgia overload :O  I am unsure where he gets all these amazing figures; some are clearly conversions but many seem to be custom sculpts?!

Now I've found a very cool new thing.:

For Cobraaaaa!

For Eterniaaaaa!

Like Jinnai, Doctor Merkury does a lot of converting to produce his Joes... and He-Man characters!  And my personal fave: he 3-D prints Transformers!  What?!

As a bonus, both these bloggers are fantastic photographers who use backdrops and terrain pieces to maximum effect showing off their work... which I can really appreciate :D